[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 20 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Pages 822-825]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Prior to Discussions With Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of 
Malaysia and an Exchange With Reporters

May 14, 2002

    President Bush. Thank you all for coming. Mr. Prime Minister, 
welcome to the Oval Office. It's great to see you.
    I've been looking forward to this visit to publicly thank the Prime 
Minister for his strong support in the war against terror. He, right 
after the September the 11th attacks,

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immediately went and signed a condolences book in our Embassy, and that 
meant a lot. He's been a--somebody with whom we can talk; we've got good 
relations. We share a deep concern about terror, what terror means to 
our respective countries, what it means to our peoples.
    Mr. Prime Minister, I want to thank you for your friendship and 
thank you for your leadership, and I want to welcome you.
    Prime Minister Mahathir. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for the 
invitation. Since we met in Shanghai, I have always wanted to follow up 
on what we discussed there, in particular with regard to how we handle 
this problem of international terrorism. And I hope that as a result of 
this visit, we will be able to understand the strategy and maybe to work 
out how best to deal with this problem which plagues all the world, not 
just the United States. I'm quite sure that this visit will be very 
fruitful.
    President Bush. I think so, too. Thank you.
    A couple of questions. David [David Sanger, New York Times].

Al Qaida Activity in Malaysia

    Q. Mr. Prime Minister, when you met with a group of us in New York, 
you said that there was no evidence at that time that Al Qaida was 
actively--was active in Malaysia. American officials have now told us 
that they believe some links do exist. Has your opinion changed since 
then?
    And Mr. President, I'd like to know whether it's still the position 
of the United States that Anwar Ibrahim has been jailed primarily for 
his political opposition to the Prime Minister?
    Prime Minister Mahathir. Well, at that time we were not very 
certain, but we have discovered that some of these people who were 
active, who planned to overthrow the Government by force of bombs, had 
activity into Pakistan and eventually to Afghanistan, where they did 
meet with the Al Qaida people.
    And they--I believe that they could overthrow the Government by 
force of bombs in order to establish what they consider to be an Islamic 
state.
    Q. You believe they are Al Qaida?
    Prime Minister Mahathir. Yes, they are. We have found evidence that 
they have had involvement with these people. But they're primarily in 
east Malaysia.
    President Bush. What was your second part of your question?

Former Malaysian Finance Minister Anwar bin Ibrahim

    Q. The question was, Mr. President, is it still the position of the 
United States that Anwar Ibrahim, the former finance minister----
    President Bush. Yes.
    Q. ----was jailed primarily for his political opposition to the 
Prime Minister? Or do you believe--and do you believe he should be 
released?
    President Bush. Our position has not changed.
    Q. Mr. President----
    Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The Malaysian press.

Malaysia-U.S. Relations

    Q. Mr. President, can you tell us what you--what we can expect of 
future Malaysia-U.S. relations as a result of these talks that are 
taking place today?
    President Bush. Well, I think you can expect continued cooperation--
intelligence sharing, for example.
    Let me finish, please.
    One of the things that we're finding is that our enemy is shadowy. 
They lurk behind civil institutions, and then they strike. They--they're 
not like an enemy we've known before. And in order to make sure our 
respective societies are as secure as possible, we must share 
intelligence. We find out a lot about movements throughout the region, 
and we're more than willing to share with the Prime Minister's 
Government what we know, and vice versa, and that's important. That's 
incredibly important. My most important job--I remind this to the 
American people--is to secure our homeland.
    Q. Not more extensive than that----
    President Bush. There's a lot more. We'll talk about trade. We'll 
talk about economy. There's a lot more to talk about. But when it comes 
to the security of a homeland, that's about as extensive as it gets. You 
see, I'm

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not going to let our Nation forget or our friends in the world forget 
what happened to us on September the 11th. It could happen to somebody 
else as well, and the Prime Minister understands that.
    And this is a very important visit from that respect. The--we'll 
also talk about the Middle East, and I look forward to hearing from the 
Prime Minister on the Middle East. So we'll have a good discussion.
    Ann [Ann Compton, ABC News].

Cuba

    Q. Mr. President, former President Carter is in Cuba, about to 
address the Cuban people. Has his--have his remarks complicated your 
foreign policy? And what would you say to the Cuban people, if allowed 
to speak directly to them?
    President Bush. Well, I--you know, I appreciate President Carter's 
focus on human rights. I think that's important in Cuba, in a place 
where there is no human rights.
    My message--first of all, it doesn't complicate my foreign policy 
because I hadn't changed my foreign policy. And that is that Fidel 
Castro is a dictator, and he is repressive. And he ought to have free 
elections, and he ought to have a free press. And he ought to free his 
prisoners, and he ought to encourage free enterprise.
    And my message to Fidel--my message to the Cuban people is, demand 
freedom, and you've got a President who stands with you. And my message 
to Fidel Castro is precisely what I said. I'm going to deliver that 
message next Monday in--here, and then I'm going to go down to Miami for 
Cuban Independence Day.
    Last question here for----

Response to Terrorism

    Q. Mr. President, what do you think of Dr. Mahathir's definition of 
terrorism and his view that the root causes of terrorism must be 
addressed not through military action alone?
    President Bush. I agree with that. I think that--but first, some of 
these people are nothing but coldblooded killers, and there's no 
rehabilitation program, except for bringing them to justice. I mean, 
there's no way that--these people made up their minds. The leaders of 
these groups have decided that they're going to come and kill. And it 
may be an American; it may be a Malaysian--who knows? But we're going to 
stop them. And so the best program is to use our respective militaries, 
intelligence gathering, cutting off money, to go after these killers.
    Now, in terms of youngsters who are looking for--you know, who are 
searching for a future, if there's a hopeless future, there may be an 
opportunity to convert them into potential suiciders or potential 
killers. And that's what I think we need to talk about, about how to 
ease hopelessness where there is no hope; I mean, to help people and to 
help people realize there's a better future other than joining up with a 
terrorist organization whose sole intent is destruction.
    That's why education is important. Good health care initiatives are 
important. That's why it's important for, you know, people in the Middle 
East to feel like there is a future. It's one of the reasons I've 
advocated a Palestinian state to be able to live side by side with 
Israel in peace, so that there--people realize there's a future, and 
there's a better--provide better choices for people other than suicide 
killing.
    But in terms of the senior Al Qaida members or some of these, 
listen, there's no--as I say, I want to repeat, there's no 
rehabilitation program for them. There's only one thing to do, is to get 
them, and we're going to. We're going to bring them to justice. And I 
will remind the Prime Minister it's going to take awhile. This is a--and 
we're patient. He needs to know that the American President, our 
Government is a very patient Government. And we're steadfast, and we're 
resolved, and we're going to hunt them down. And we look forward to 
continue working with him to do just that. And we'll bring them to 
justice, and that's precisely what's going to happen to these people.

Note: The President spoke at 4:08 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Fidel Castro of Cuba. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.

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